Lakers – Sports Blog it https://sportsblogit.com Thu, 02 Mar 2023 20:23:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 Can Russell Westbrook Push the Clippers into the Championship Hunt? https://sportsblogit.com/can-russell-westbrook-push-the-clippers-into-the-championship-hunt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=can-russell-westbrook-push-the-clippers-into-the-championship-hunt Thu, 02 Mar 2023 20:20:21 +0000 https://sportsblogit.com/?p=7000

Russell Westbrook has been in the NBA for a grand total of years. He is most likely going to end up in the hall of fame, even though he has never won an NBA championship. He is 34 years old and has recently been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. The new Clipper has recently […]

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Russell Westbrook as a Los Angeles Clipper

Russell Westbrook has been in the NBA for a grand total of years. He is most likely going to end up in the hall of fame, even though he has never won an NBA championship. He is 34 years old and has recently been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Russell Westbrook as a former Laker

The new Clipper has recently reached a huge milestone. 24,000 career points. Only 33 players have ever accomplished this, and he is among the greats of league in not only scoring, but all-around performance.

Westbrook receives a lot of hate from the media and from fans of past teams that he has played on. He talks back a little bit, but he does not deserve the disrespect that the world has given to him. He may not be the player that he used to be, but there is a feeling in the air that he will brighten the light in the Clippers and possibly go on a deep playoff run with them. Teammate Paul George said in an interview, “I’m a big believer in and a fan of what Russ’s work is, having one of my best seasons in my career alongside of him. I’ve seen what he can do, night in, night out, and I think he’s still got a lot of game there.” Paul George is one of the premier players in the league, so those words mean a lot. He believes that with the shooting capabilities of the Clippers already, Russ will be able to run the floor and create spacing for his teammates.

Welcoming Russell Westbrook as a Clipper

Russell Westbrook completes the Big 3 alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The two have been on the Clippers together for a few years and have not made it past the Western Conference Finals. Now, Westbrook has given a shot of hope to an already talented team, who might use him to go the distance.

Again Russ receives a lot of hate for his performance in the past few seasons, but there are some who still believe in his abilities. In a postgame interview, he was asked if his difficult shots and impressive dribbling skills are second nature or if he thinks before he does them. He was flattered and responded with a laugh, “I just do the best I can”. He is a talented player and deserves more respect from the media and from fans of the league. The Clippers might have an incredible end of the season, and Russell Westbrook might be the reason.

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Taco Tuesdays are ruining LeBron James productivity and this Reddit user proved it https://sportsblogit.com/taco-tuesdays-are-ruining-lebrons-productivity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=taco-tuesdays-are-ruining-lebrons-productivity Tue, 28 Jul 2020 19:01:00 +0000 https://sportsblogit.com/?p=3313

Data has proven that Taco Tuesday’s are ruining LeBron James productivity! The NBA subreddit is full of comment gold. However, usually all your find there is highlight videos and power-tripping mods. With that being said every once in a while you get an absolute gem. Reddit user AngryCentrist used data to prove Lebon James is […]

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lebron james taco tuesday analysis

Data has proven that Taco Tuesday’s are ruining LeBron James productivity!

The NBA subreddit is full of comment gold. However, usually all your find there is highlight videos and power-tripping mods. With that being said every once in a while you get an absolute gem. Reddit user AngryCentrist used data to prove Lebon James is playing worse because of Taco Tuesday. His analysis proves that Lebon James is a less productive player because of Taco Tuesdays. Below you will find his evidence to support this claim.

From Reddit:

One of the most unappetizing developments in the NBA is LeBron James’ recent obsession with Taco Tuesdays. And I’m not talking about the broader issue of cultural appropriation or his sad attempt to trademark the phrase. I’m talking about how the King’s curious obsession with eating tacos on Tuesdays, has led to him eating Ls on the box score.

Almost every culture has a kind of taco. The Greeks have gyros. The French have crepes. Italians have calzones. Americans have Taco Bell. Folding dough around a medley of meat and veggies is a food concept as old as time. And while everyone enjoys tacos, some of us are more fanatic than others…

Enter LeBron James

The man’s awkward passion for Taco Tuesday tends to evoke mixed reactions: anywhere between smiling at the heartwarming dad vibes and a literal whole-body cringe. And I won’t deny, as a proper Houstonian who takes his tacos very seriously, I was suspicious when I first heard grumblings of the Ohio-native’s weekly affair. So, I looked to the numbers to see if there is more to this meat-and-cheese filled story.

“It’s just like Taco Tuesdays. It’s a (expletive) thing.”

Before biting into the data, I needed to pinpoint the origins of James’ taco-obsession (taco-obsession, hehe). After an exhaustive multi-minute googling sesh, the earliest observance I could find is this Instagram story from August 2018.

Just a few weeks later we got further confirmation of LeBron’s enthusiasm for weekday alliteration-themed occasions during a post-practice Q&A. His fervent response to the media’s questions about his “White Boy Wednesdays” playlist gave it all away:

“It’s a universal thing, right?’’ he asked reporters, with a smile. “It’s just like taco Tuesdays. It’s a (expletive) thing.”

It’s a (expletive) thing. Profound words with profound implications. It’s at this point we can confidently presume Taco Tuesday is a staple in the James house. His videos would increase in frequency and social media buzz throughout the 2018-19 season before reaching a zeitgeist level of furor with this May ‘19

Thus, we can split LeBron’s career is into two distinct periods:

  • Pre-Taco Tuesday Era: 2003-04 – 2017-18 seasons
  • Taco Tuesday Era: 2018-19 – 2019-20 seasons

With a reliable taco timeline established, it’s time to count the beans.

The Taco-nalysis

I began by compiling LeBron’s career game logs (the population) and identifying the day of the week each game was played on. Next, I pulled in his Season Averages (the control group) and selected the following 10 stat categories to get a comprehensive picture of his performance: Game Score, Points, Field Goal %, 3-Point %, Free Throw %, Total Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks, and Turnovers. For each of these stats, I compared his average performance for each day of the week to his overall average for the corresponding season.

Example: for the 2003-04 NBA season, LeBron averaged 20.9 Points per game. On Sundays that season, he averaged 26.6 Points per game. So, for Sunday during the ‘03-04 season, LeBron had a Points per game variance of +27.3%. This calculation is repeated for each day of the week for each of the 10 stat categories for each of LeBron’s seasons in the league.

LeBron James Taco Analysis

A 5% variance threshold was used to clearly delineate between good and bad performances. Meaning, daily stat averages greater than +5% of the season average are considered “Positive” (green), variances less than -5% are considered “Negative” (red) and variances within those bounds are considered “Neutral” (yellow). This threshold divided the data points into the three stratum equally.

Pre-Taco Tuesday Era

This analysis examined 1,050 total data points from the period before LeBron discovered tacos (10 stats x 7 days per week x 15 seasons) and found an unambiguous trend: The King played better on Tuesdays.

Since LeBron entered the league, his Tuesday night performances had registered the lowest rate of Negative variances and the highest rate of Positive variances. Meaning, Tuesday is the day he was least likely to perform worse than his season average, and the day he was most likely to perform better than his season average.

Pre-Taco Tuesday Era

When looking at the stat variances cumulatively, his Tuesday performance stands out even more!

Tuesdays had a Total Average Variance of 2.4%. Meaning, in the pre-Taco Tuesday era, LeBron posted an average stat line +2.4% better than his season average on Tuesday nights.

And with LeBron being undoubtedly the best player on his teams, we’d expect that Tuesday performance bump to be reflected in the Win/Loss column… It was.

He came out victorious in 71% of his Tuesday outings in the pre-Taco Tuesday era – more than 4% better than his overall win rate for the same period.

This is where things get bleak. LeBron-stans, now would be the time to log off.

Oh, How the Tacos have Turned

Everyone thought LeBron’s biggest weakness was his hairline. Turns out, it’s tacos.

Prior to his weekly taco tradition, LeBron’s Tuesday performance had the lowest rate of negative variances and the highest rate of positive variances. In the first two seasons of the Taco Tuesday era, James’ sacred day saw an +11% uptick in negative variances and a -17% drop in positive variances.

Looking at the stats in aggregate we get an even better sense for his drop in Tuesday performance. LeBron is suddenly performing notably worse than his season average in most of the key stats! A complete reversal of the trend from the days before his taco titillations.

Suffice it to say, LeBron’s average Tuesday performance has fallen flatter than Casa Ole’s® Velveeta-covered tostada. For those of you residing outside the great state of Texas, allow this trip advisor review to enlighten you on our state’s worst Mexican chain.

Similar to how Montezuma’s revenge transforms local cuisines into violent bowel movements, we’d expect LeBron’s shitty Tuesday performance to translate to the Win/Loss column… it did.

Since the weekday shenanigans began, LeBron’s Tuesday Win % has lagged his overall Win % by -2%. To put all these numbers into perspective, here are a few Taco-comparisons for you to consider.

Comparison

Conclusion of findings

It’s becoming difficult to separate LeBron’s on-court performance from his escalating taco mania. Whether he’s sending taco trucks to the California firefighters, leading the Staples Center in an arena-wide taco chant, or his recent feature on Migos’ Taco Tuesday track – LeBron has progressively made the Latin street food a part of his identity.

After examining 17 seasons of data the findings are clear: LeBron James’ Tuesday performance has gotten measurably worse since his Taco Tuesday antics began.

So, what does this mean for LeBron and the Lakers?

Well, in the short run, they don’t have too much to worry about. The NBA curiously scheduled no Tuesday night matchups for the Lakers in the bubble restart. I don’t mean to stoke the r/nba conspiracy flames but if that sus pattern holds for the playoff schedule, we’ll need an official response from Adam Silver.

 

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LeBron Receives Lifetime Award https://sportsblogit.com/lebron-receives-lifetime-award/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lebron-receives-lifetime-award Thu, 05 Mar 2020 06:01:14 +0000 https://sportsblogit.com/?p=3244

After a long and successful career LeBron James finally received an award worthy of his stature. LeBron was recognized for a performance that will stand through time and all eternity. Check it out and congrats to the big guy!

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After a long and successful career LeBron James finally received an award worthy of his stature. LeBron was recognized for a performance that will stand through time and all eternity. Check it out and congrats to the big guy!

The post LeBron Receives Lifetime Award appeared first on Sports Blog it.

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